One of the best costume dramas out there. Very well directed by Anatole Litvak-- the camera glides, the pretty people sparkle and the cross-dissolves entrance you into a world of romance and madness. Charles Boyer is great as a Byronic mess whose life has become a prison and Danielle Darrieux is appropriately angelic as the beautiful damsel that can set him free. Many great sequences propelled entirely by its visuals and score (the glances at the ballet, for example, wow). Just top of the line cinema. You can tell why Hollywood took in both the director and the leading man soon after. Really enjoyed this. I guess you could call it morbid or in bad taste or a prime example of romanticizing toxic relationships-- but fuck all that. Love sometimes can make you jump into the fire-- and that's both horrid-- and beautiful, sadly.